On May 23rd, 1965, a crew of eight Japanese men boarded a plane bound for Boston. Their mission: to define the subculture that was tearing through the youth of Tokyo and unsettling the fragile infrastructure of ancient local tradition. They were to visit university campuses, make a short film and take photographs, in an attempt introduce the Ivy League aesthetic to a broader, more sheltered Japanese audience.

One of the men, Shōsuke Ishizu, was the heir to fashion label VAN. The...